President Barack Obama faced questions over budget negotiations, the scandal that brought down the CIA chief and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s characterization of the September attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, when he held his first news conference in months Wednesday at the White House. Here’s our live blog.

President Barack Obama hasn’t gotten much of a honeymoon since his decisive election victory on Nov. 6. First came word that CIA Director David Petraeus was caught up in an extramarital affair, forcing his resignation. The scandal widened with the disclosure that Marine Gen. John Allen, America’s top general in Afghanistan, had traded emails with the Florida woman whose complaints touched off the FBI investigation that uncovered the Petraeus affair.

Now the president faces a press corps hungry for answers about the Petraeus-Allen mess, high-stakes budget negotiations with Congress, and the attacks in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Hard to believe the election was just eight days ago.

Obama cites a letter he received from man in Tennessee, a deep red state, urging cooperation. Seems to be a message to Republicans that both sides need to compromise, lest they anger constituents eager for progress.

President Obama refers to former CIA Director David Petraeus in the past tense. “Gen. Petraeus had an extraordinary career,” he said. He commended Petraeus, who was caught up in an adulterous affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. (Here’s a list of key players in the scandal and a timeline.)

“What I’m not going to do is extend further a tax cut for folks who don’t need it and that would cost close to $1 trillion,” he said. “And it’s very difficult to see how you make up that trillion dollars just by loopholes and deductions.”

Obama gets a question on comprehensive immigration reform, passage of which is one of his goals for a second term. The president, who won more than 70% of the Latino vote, said the outcome of the election has caused some “reflection” from Republicans on the immigration issue.

He said there will be an immigration bill introduced in Congress “very soon after my inauguration.” And he reiterated that there “should be a pathway for legal status” for undocumented immigrants. They should have “an avenue” to resolve their legal status in the U.S., he said.

Obama called on a Telemundo reporter for the third question of the news conference, bypassing Reuters, Bloomberg, and other major networks. That a tribute to the growing clout and influence of the Latino population, Spanish-language press included.

Obama seems determined to make tax increases on wealthier Americans part of any deficit reduction compromise with Republicans. He said the election results confirm that “middle class folks” should not bear the entire brunt of a budget deal.

On Election Night, Obama said he wants to meet with his opponent in the election, Mitt Romney. He said now that he hasn’t scheduled a meeting yet.

He gives props to Romney, commending his work turning around the Olympics in Salt Lake City. And he said he wants to hear Romney’s ideas about “jobs and growth.” One sure sign the campaign is over: Obama makes no mention of Romney’s work at Bain Capital.

Flash of anger from the president. Question from a reporter about Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) who has said he doesn’t want to see U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice promoted.

Graham and his colleague, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) have also called for creation of a select committee that would investigate the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. that led to the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Ms. Rice has been mentioned as a possible successor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The president says that Rice doesn’t deserve blame for the debacle in Benghazi. He says he won’t be dissuaded from elevating Rice to the secretary of state job if he decides to go in that direction.“If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me,” he says. “And I’m happy to have that discussion with them.”

He added: “But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador — who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and besmirch her reputation – is outrageous.”

During one of the presidential debates, Obama said the sequester “will not happen.” Today he is saying we could go over the fiscal cliff. Democrats would say he’s playing hardball but Republicans would say such talk is dangerous.

President Obama lays out the sequence for budget talks, saying Congress should first pass a bill that extends the Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year. “Give them that certainty right now,” he said.

Then, he said, the White House and Congress should begin debate about broader deficit reduction efforts. Discussion should include “tax reform,” “closing deductions,” and “dealing with entitlements.”

He said he’s “ready and wiling to make big commitments to lock in deficit reduction and stabilize our debt …”

Obama gets a question on steps he might take to curb climate change. He said over the next few months he’ll be talking to scientists, engineers and elected officials “to find out what more we can do” to make progress in curbing pollutants that lead to climate change.

Protecting the planet from the effects of climate change “in a serious way,” he said, “would involve making some tough political choices …”

“Mr. President, don’t think for one minute I don’t hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi. I think you failed as Commander in Chief before, during, and after the attack,” he said in a statement emailed to reporters. “We owe it to the American people and the victims of this attack to have full, fair hearings and accountability be assigned where appropriate. Given what I know now, I have no intention of promoting anyone who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle.”

Obama closed the hour-long news conference by refusing to answer a question about automatic spending cuts that a Bloomberg reporter shouted out as he was wrapping up.

A bit tongue in cheek, Obama said he doesn’t want to set a bad “precedent” by fielding the question.

So ends the first presidential news conference since Mr. Obama’s re-election. He seemed to move more briskly than in past news conferences, at which he had a tendency to filibuster.

Known to be emotionally reserved, the president showed some fire in defending U.N. Ambassador Rice. Sen. Graham and other Republicans have criticized her for giving interviews after the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, in which she said they grew out of a protest over an anti-Muslim video.

The president’s pique is likely to dominate coverage of the news conference.

Comments (5 of 134)

This is what happens when 93 cents of every dollar earned in the family goes to 1% or one family member. This nation can't continue to expect over 300 million of us to share in only 7 cents of every dollar earned in this country..... We either start redistributing the earnings more fairly so businesses have consumers again or we just admit we are inches a way from a third world status, blame the working poor and eliminate all Social programs.... Yes Virginia, there is class warfare and the rich are winning...My solution raise the minimum wage for all workers to 12.50 an hour, let illegals come out of the shadows so they don't have to accept lower wages that depress everyone else's wages and they will be paying taxes that this country needs desperately. The only winner in doing nothing about immigration are Business owners.

I agree we have a serious deficit problem but why not start with cutting welfare at the top first...then see where we are before going after much needed programs for the elderly, poor and middle class...

2:28 pm January 14, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

And yet if a scant minority holds all the wealth it's hardly a Democracy is it?

11:35 am November 15, 2012

JR wrote:

Class warfare and divisive tactics is not democracy. I am sick and tired of hearing about providing benefits to the masses that are paid for by a scant minority. The cost should be across the board.
Obama is holding the wealthy hostage...robbing Peter to pay Paul is how he won re-election.

11:33 am November 15, 2012

JR wrote:

Class warfare and divisive tactics is not democracy. I am sick and tired of hearing about providing benefits to the masses that are paid for by a scant minority. The cost should be across the board.

9:33 pm November 14, 2012

Ayoyo wrote:

Romney lost because he was not trust worthy. He spent the last few days of the campaign putting out ads on Jeep jobs being shipped China, even after GM, Chrysler, Detroit Free press and others corrected him. He would not be “dictated to by fact checkers”. Romney, at a time when he needed independents continued to shoot himself in the foot by running the misleading ads. A lot of people saw the ads, its corrections and the Governor’s false jeep ads. What a way to close an election.

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